100 years ago in Eastern Washington: Farmers buy biplanes; senator pursues presidential bid

Local farmers were among the first in the region to fully embrace a burgeoning new transportation technology, the airplane.

F.W. Hungate, a Pomeroy farmer and banker, and William Burke, an Almira farmer, both accepted delivery of Curtiss biplanes, The Spokesman-Review reported.

The appeal of air travel was obvious to farmers from relatively remote regions. Hungate reported that he took delivery of his new biplane in Spokane and flew to Pomeroy in an hour and 20 minutes.

Burke, apparently, did not have pure transportation in mind when he bought his plane. He spent the first three hours in his machine “practicing the loop and the falling leaf.” In addition to being a farmer, he was an aerial acrobatic student at the Symons-Russell aviation school in Spokane.

From the presidential primary beat: Spokane’s Sen. Miles Poindexter was running for the Republican presidential nomination, although apparently some people were already writing off his campaign.

Some Republicans in Oregon claimed that “he did not care to run the risk” of campaigning in their state. Poindexter took this as a challenge, and booked a campaign trip to Oregon.

“Neither Oregon nor any other state should make the mistake of underestimating the strength of the Poindexter campaign,” wrote The Spokesman-Review.

The editors said they had inside information that “the senator is, and will continued to be, a very strong contender for the nomination.”

In short, the dream of having a U.S. president from Spokane remained alive. However, if you ever had to memorize the U.S. presidents in school, you may recall that you never had to memorize the name “Poindexter.”